


Run boy run

by embersandturquoise



Category: Dune Series - Frank Herbert, Frank Herbert's Children of Dune (2003), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: AU Dune, Agony, Alternate Universe, Angst, Charles Xavier after Apocalypse, Charles can help, Charles is a Sweetheart, Children of Dune - Freeform, Dreams, Dune - Freeform, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fear is the mindkiller, Hurt/Comfort, Leto is desperate, Multi, Mutants, Post-X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Visions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27227740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/embersandturquoise/pseuds/embersandturquoise
Summary: Ghanima Atreides is in desperate need of help for her brother, Leto.While on another planet, help comes from a man who reminds her of Leto.Charles Xavier needs all his powers to save Leto.Set after the happenings of "X-men: Apocalypse".
Relationships: Charles Xavier/Leto Atreides II
Kudos: 1





	Run boy run

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for kudos and comments. Hope you enjoy this read.

**Run, boy, run**

“He runs, and runs, and runs. And when he has exhausted himself he returns to me, puts his head in my lap, and asks me to help him find a way to die.”

The woman looked exhausted herself. She couldn´t bear the load any more, that much was clear.

“Please, they said if anyone could help him, it´ll be you.”

“How did you find me?”

said the man in the lilac pullover. In a strange way he reminded her of her twin brother, must be a side-effect of travelling to this uncommon place. No sand, no water of life, no spice...

“Leto had a vision.”

“Leto is your brother I assume?”

“My twin-brother. We are very close. We can... share our thoughts. And not just ours.”

The man in the wheelchair wrinkled his forehead.

“Yes, I am familiar with that. Telepathy?”

She nodded.

“In a way. It´s more than just that. We can see through the lives of our ancestors. Of our whole planet. Meaning, Leto can do that. He´s more gifted than I am. But he is in pain. And when he is, I am too. I´m afraid I will lose him.”

Charles Xavier felt for the woman. There was something in their story that reminded him of the struggle in his earlier life. He had overcome that. He was much stronger today. And he felt for the young man. Barely a man, a boy still.

Leto lay on a stone. His eyes shut, his body eased from something the woman called “spice”. But he was sweating and panting.

Again, Charles had the strange feeling of reminiscences. Not in a good way. When he looked back at the woman, her eyes flashed blue. Some mutation maybe...

“Where did you say you come from?”

She looked at her brother and her face contorted with grief.

“Arrakis.”

And then Ghanima told Charles how their planet had been exploited, how all resources had been used up. How Leto had not undergone the transformation he had been destined to do. How he still roamed through a desert that wasn´t any longer a desert and how their planet was about to die.

As far as Charles could see, Leto was suffering from addiction to a drug that wasn´t available anymore. Ghanima had brought the last bottles of a slimy green substance which she fed to her brother whenever he was nearing wake, but now their stock had come to an end.

Charles couldn´t barely understand the importance of the so-called “Golden Path”; the balance between the desert and the living creatures on their home planet, but what he could understand was that the siblings needed help.

He looked at the woman and yes – she could read him. She nodded and moved to her brother, bowed over his face and placed a kiss onto his forehead with such tenderness Charles was moved to his bones by the sight of it. She had tears in her eyes, but she had to leave.

“I will need all my powers here. Go now.”

Ghanima left the same way they had come here and now Charles was alone with Leto. In this cave under the desert. It was the only genuine desert there was on his earth and it was cool in here. He wondered how the boy did not freeze. In fact, Leto´s body was heated. Charles could feel his warmth radiating around the stone block he lay on. He felt his throat constrict. The boy was beautiful. Both of the twins were. But after Charles had given Moira her memory back and Moira had kissed him, Charles knew that a lot had changed during the days around Cuba and now. Moira had understood, she had known before him and yes, maybe it would have been better if he had held the memories back, but it was her life and she was much stronger than he thought her to be in the days back then and then she knew about Erik. Charles heaved a big sigh. This was not the time to think about Erik.

He focused back on to Leto, who had begun to move on the stone.

Charles looked down on him and sighed. All so soft, such a beautiful sight, the boy. The thin linen slack did not cover a lot and even there... everything on Leto was soft, all nicely shaped and visible through the fabric.

Leto´s eyes flashed blue right in front of Charles from one moment to the next.

“You want to touch me.”

Charles gasped and backed away. That young man´s swiftness was terrifying. Soft and young and all that, but then he was like a wild deer in a cage, waiting... for prey. He was so close, Charles felt as if Leto looked right into his mind.

“You are afraid, Charles. You are afraid of your feelings. Of your desires. Of your needs. You are afraid because you see all of this mirrored on me. Fear is the mindkiller.”

Leto was more powerful than Charles had thought him to be. But now the boy was shaking again. Charles noticed a strange rash all over his skin. Mutation? Side-effects from the drug abuse? Or some unknown disease that wasn´t on his planet?

“It´s the sandtrout.”

Leto´s voice had softened again. He tumbled down onto the stone, panting, touching his arms, his neck and then brushing his fingers lightly over his chest.

“My skin is not my own.”

He began to shake and his eye-colour changed quickly from light blue to flashed blue and back again in a frenzied pace. His body wringed and he coughed, clearly aching from the pain of withdrawal. Charles had seen such before, in fact he had gone through all of it himself a long time ago.

He needed to be quick now, the boy´s eyes rolled back and his whole body contorted as if he was having a cramp. Charles gave his wheels a firm push and then he was beside Leto. He needed all the strength of his upper body to bring Leto to rest and for a moment he thought how very dumb it had been to do this alone. The boy was so much stronger than he was and he roared up against him, tried to shake him off but then finally Charles felt the tiny gap of relaxation in him he needed to connect with him, and he pushed forward with his mind and then everything was quiet.

They were standing on some kind of outlook. High above on a rock. There was nothing to be seen around them but the width of the desert. Sand... heat... dust... and in the far distance – two suns.

Charles looked around. For a short moment he was alone. He saw the sand whirling down there, as if something was moving – very quick. Then Leto stood by his side again. Charles frowned.

“You did that?”

Leto nodded but he did not look proud or happy. In fact, there was agony to be read in his eyes, so much pain and – desire.

“This is what I do. I run. I roam the desert from sunset until sundown. And then I can´t move no more, I can´t breathe, I can´t live. But I can´t stop. So I start anew. And again. Day after day.”

Leto heaved his chest up and down. It was heartbreaking to see him like that. So much desperation in a young heart and all he had left – was nothing.

“But why? Why do you do it then?”

“Our planet is dying. It can´t survive like this. Our sources are all used up. We need a symbiosis between nature and mankind. But we are at war with ourselves. And when the worms die, we cannot use their spice anymore. I was chosen for the Golden Path. I am the Chosen One, but... I just can´t. My father did reject from the Path and now I am to do the same. How am I to live with that? And how am I to live without being human? Without... love. Without... anything.”

Charles looked around once more and now he saw a different world; a world similar to his own, all green and prospering and gushing but there were the cadavers of wormlike creatures. Leto shared another vision with him – Arrakis black, exploited, burnt out, no life at all; just bones and rotting soil, ruins... leftovers from a world that didn´t exist anymore.

“So this is what will happen to your planet?”

Charles asked. Then he heard Leto´s voice coming from up above.

“It is happening already. We are lost. And I lost all purpose of life. There´s no spice on earth, there are no worms, there is no place for me here...”

Leto had vanished. Charles turned around and just now he noticed he wasn’t in his wheelchair anymore; he was standing on the rock, high above the desert; he could move, he could actually...

“Run, Charles... run.”

And he did. He roamed the desert, he ran like he never did before; he was a whirlwind, he was the sand, he felt no fear. He felt nothing but the rush of air around him and the power of his body – running.

And then they were back.

Charles looked at the still wringing body of Leto, coughing now and shaking, screaming and he knew he would care for this boy. He felt for him and there was more, a strange, but deep connection between them. The agony, the pain, the desperation – the desire.

Charles put his fingers onto his temple and closed his eyes.

And in his mind he teleported Leto to a safe place, a place where he could grow, where he would find love... where he could live.

And finally Leto relaxed. His body stopped from trembling, all tension faded away, his face looked peacefully eased. He opened his eyes. The flashing blue colour had vanished from them. But he smiled at Charles. He heaved himself up and looked around.

“Where am I?”

Charles sighed. He had nearly expected something like this to happen. But for the sake of the boy´s health he would not change that now. Leto needed rest. And peace. And here he was, starting a new life.

“You are safe, Leto.”

Leto stood up and looked at Charles as if he saw him for the first time.

“Leto?”

Charles gulped. He did not do this totally wrong... again?

“Yes, you are Leto Atreides...”

The boy chuckled softly.

“I know that. It just sounded strange. Like a memory. Like a person I knew long ago. Someone... someone I no longer am.”

“Yes, sometimes it feels like this. When we evolve, we rise. And sometimes we fall. And sometimes we have to give up...”

“... parts of ourselves?”

Leto moved around Charles now and examined the wheelchair.

“So, I guess you haven´t been in that chair all of your life, am I right?”

Charles nodded. They boy still had a quite disturbing presence.

“Are you... like me then?”

Leto asked. Charles drew a long breath.

“You remind me a lot of myself when I was younger. So in a way, yes – we are one. But we are not the same.”

Leto stopped right in front of Charles and kneeled so that they were eye to eye now.

“Where is my sister?”

“She will be waiting for you at my school.”

Leto beamed. His eyes did not flash anymore, the spice must have left his body in ways even Charles couldn´t understand, but he was clear – sober, as they called that on earth – and the painful expression had finally left his beautiful face.

“A school? For people like me?”

Now Charles chuckled and turned his wheelchair, facing the exit of the cave. He gave Leto a nod to follow him.

“For people like you and me.”


End file.
